


The Flying Circus

by Jedikatie



Category: Project Blue Book (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-05-14 23:32:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19283443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jedikatie/pseuds/Jedikatie
Summary: After being trapped, and with Allen injured, Michael tells him a story about how he became interested in flying.





	The Flying Circus

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my entry for the Project Blue Book Kidficathon. Hopefully it's not too horrible, because I've never written kidfic before, and it's been years since I wrote anything. There's a brief mention of spanking towards the end of the fic, though it's not described (but is an appropriate punishment for the era). More notes at the bottom of the page.

“We’re trapped.” Michael stated as he dropped into a squat next to the doctor. “There’s no way I’m going to be able to squeeze through that tiny gap to get help. But I tied a handkerchief to a stick and stuck it through so hopefully someone will see it.”

Allen coughed and winced as he shifted slightly on the ground, his arm reaching around his ribs. “Did you write help on the handkerchief?”

Michael reached over to pull Allen’s arm off his ribs, a concerned look on his face. “Hey. You need to stop moving, doc. You’ll only make it worse.”

“Well, maybe you should do something to distract me while we’re waiting.”

“Like what?”

“Tell me a story,” Allen replied. “Tell me…” he thought for a minute. “Tell me how you got interested in flying in the first place. I mean, I know practically nothing about your past, despite us being partners for the past year.”

Michael shifted around, so his back was to the wall Allen was leaning against. “Not much to tell.”

“Tell it to me anyway.”

“I saw some people flying, and I thought that was the best thing in the world and what I wanted to do when I grew up.”

“Come on, Captain. I know there had to have been more to it than that.”

Michael eyed the professor. “You’re really not going to let this go, are you?” Allen shook his head, wincing in pain. “Fine. If I tell you, then you have to promise to stay still until someone rescues us. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Michael took a deep breath, released it, and started. “I was five years old…”

 

**1926  
Calhoun County, Michigan, Fairgrounds**

 

“Come on, Mikey, we’re going to miss the acrobats.” David, his nine-year-old cousin, exclaimed, trying to pull Mikey out of his mother’s grasp. “I hear they’ve got a guy who climbs into the plane from an automobile, and another one who does handstands on the wing while they’re flying.”

“David, stop that. Michael’s staying with me. The last thing I need is for him to get lost in this crowd of people.”

“Aw, Aunt Lizzie, I promise I wouldn’t let him out my sight.” David whined. 

“No, David, and that’s final.”

Michael, who hadn’t been asked his opinion on the matter, sighed and wished his mother had let him go with David. It was bound to be more entertaining than being stuck by his mother’s side. And David always managed to get into the most interesting spots. Last year he’d ended up riding the back of the elephant in the center ring when Barnum & Bailey came to town, even though the people watching weren’t supposed to get near the animals when they were performing. Still, at least he’d finally get to see one of those new airplanes somewhere other than on a movie screen like he had the few times he’d spent a Saturday at the movies.

Lizzie Quinn pulled Michael along towards a group of her friends near the race track. David trailed along reluctantly at first, but then perked up when he realized that there was an automobile on the horse track with a guy in a brightly colored outfit next to it. He elbowed Michael and pointed to the vehicle, whispering, “Maybe this won’t be so bad after all, looks like they’re going to do that trick with the guy climbing into the plane from the race track.”

Michael craned his neck around the crowd of women, and saw the man David was talking about. “Who is that?” he asked.

David smiled and said, “That’s the chief acrobat for Ivan Gates’ flying circus, a guy named A. F. Frantz.” Just then, they heard a strange mechanical buzzing noise off in the distance. The two boys swiveled their heads, trying to figure out where it was coming from, and Michael spotted it first and pointed it out to his cousin. “Look, David! It looks like one of the ones from the newsreel we saw a couple of months ago.”

David, full of self-importance, told him, “That’s a Standard J-1. They’ve got specially built planes with a bigger cockpit to give more people rides in them at the same time.”

Michael’s eyes got bigger. “They give rides?”

“Yep.” David glanced over to his aunt, who was busy talking with her friends. “If we can get away from your mom, I’ve still got a dollar from the money my parents gave me to spend while I was visiting you guys, and I’m going up for a ride.”

“What about me?” Michael cried. “I don’t have a dollar. And I want to go too.”

“Sorry, cuz, but I’ve only got one dollar. And I’m going up on the plane.”

Michael thought about telling his mom, but he knew David would just get even later if he did. Besides, he did want to go in the plane. “Maybe I can talk Mom into going for a ride.”

“Don’t count on it. She’s too busy talking with her friends to care about going up.” David pointed out. “Oh, look, they’re starting… they’re driving the automobile down the track, and here comes the Jenny again.”

“What’s that hanging from the airplane?” Michael asked, not able to see clearly as the crowd pressed forward to watch the tricks. David pulled him around the adults til they were right at the edge of the race track so they could get a better view.

“It’s a ladder. It’s how Mr. Frantz is going to climb into the plane.” Closer and closer the plane came to the ground with the ladder trailing behind it, as the open-top car drove down the track. Everyone watched breathless as the acrobat reached up and grabbed the flapping ladder and started up before the plane pulled up and away from the vehicle, which slowed to a stop beneath. The acrobat quickly climbed up the ladder, and then stood on the wing.

“Just watch, Michael… I bet he’s going to do a handstand.”

Michael’s eyes were like saucers as he watched the man doing his act. David was right… first he stood on his hands, and then he actually walked on his hands down the wing before righting himself. And then he jumped off the plane! Just a few hundred feet above the ground a parachute came out, and he landed roughly but jumped up and waved to the crowd to show he was okay.

Then the plane circled around and this time it was doing loops in the air, and then turned itself upside down while another came flying towards it a few dozen below.

“That must be Clyde Pangborn!” David exclaimed. “He’s famous for flying upside down.” He told Michael excitedly.

Michael watched as the pilot somehow managed to do just what David said, and then to his amazement, the pilots changed planes, with the one – Clyde, he supposed – climbing down into the one beneath him, and then the other pilot took Clyde’s place, and then both planes flew off in different directions.

Michael watched, fascinated by the various acts. There were a couple of guys who were playing tennis on the wings of the plane as they flew by! Another guy dangled from a trapeze by his teeth. And while those were interesting, he liked the tricks the pilots did better. The turns, the spins, the loops… He didn’t even hear his mother calling him. She finally came up and pulled him away from the show, but he turned his head back to keep watching what was going on. “Mom?” he asked hesitantly. “Can I have a dollar?”

“Why on earth would you need a dollar, Michael?” His mother asked impatiently.

“I want to go up for a ride on one of the airplanes.”

“Absolutely not. You’re going to keep your feet firmly planted on the ground, young man. Wherever did you get such a ridiculous idea?”

Michael hedged a bit, not wanting to get his cousin in trouble. “I heard some of the people talking about how they give rides in the planes.” Which was true, he had heard them saying that. It’s just not where he heard it first. He glanced around, wondering what had happened to David anyway. He’d lost track of him after the show started. And then he saw his cousin, just about to get on one of the planes. He wished with all his heart that he could go up with him, but his mother had no intention of letting that happen.

Then he heard a barker calling a short distance away. “Ladies and gentlemen! Ladies and gentlemen! We at the Ivan Gates Flying Circus are known for giving rides to paying passengers for the very low price of a dollar. But four lucky people today will get a chance to win a ride on an airplane for the low, low price of ten cents! That’s right – for just one slim dime, you can buy a ticket for a chance to go up on one of our planes with our chief pilot, Clyde Pangborn himself!”

Michael knew he’d never get a dollar from his mother. She had her mind made up. But maybe, just maybe, he could get a dime… after all, at worst, his ticket wouldn’t be picked. But maybe… He had to try. She just didn’t need to know that was what he wanted the dime for…

“Mom?” he asked when the ladies had paused in their conversation, several of the younger ones watching the acrobats perform yet another round of tricks for the adoring crowd.

“Yes, Michael?” she answered.

“Can I have a dime? I want to get some cotton candy, and I saw a booth where they were playing a game over there,” as he pointed a short distance away.

“I don’t know, Michael. You’re not big enough to go over there alone.”

A worried look crossed Michael’s face as he was afraid that his mother would insist on taking him, ruining his plan to get the dime. “Can’t Davey take me? He’s bigger and older than me.”

“But where is that cousin of yours? I swear, he seems to disappear half the time.”

“Oh, he went to the outhouse. He’ll be back in a few minutes.” Michael hoped his mother didn’t catch on to his little white lie, and it almost seemed like she was going to when one of her friends distracted her with a gasp and nearly fainted at one of the acrobats’ tricks.

Once the young lady was sorted out, his mother agreed and handed Michael the dime, just as David came running up, grinning like a madman. “There you are, Davey. Take Michael over to cotton candy booth and then he can pay that game, would you? We’ll be over there,” pointing to a shady tree not far away, “to get Millicent out of the sun while she recovers from her faint.”

David frowned, but nodded obediently at his aunt’s words. “Come on, Mikey. Let’s get that treat.” Michael dutifully followed his cousin until he was sure that his mother couldn’t see him, and then pulled David aside.

“David, I don’t want to get cotton candy” he started, then corrected himself. “Well, I wouldn’t mind some cotton candy, but I want to use the money Mom gave me for something else. They’re selling chances for a ride on the plane for only a dime and I want to get one.”

“Oh come on, Mikey, you don’t seriously think you’re going to win that, do you? At least I know when I spent my dollar that I was actually going to get to ride in an airplane. You’re just throwing away your money.” David told him. “You won’t even be able to see out of the cockpit, you’re too short.”

“What was it like?” Michael asked, plotting how to get his ticket even if David didn’t take him.

“It was the best! The pilot, a guy named Eddie Brooks, took me and a family of three up all at once and we flew all the way into town and back before we landed and had to get off. They’ve got these steel ladders on both sides of the plane so people can climb in while the other passengers are getting out. The wind was in our faces, but it was neat to travel faster than that old car of your neighbor’s we came out here in, all at several hundred feet above the ground.”

“Please, David, let me buy the ticket.” Michael pleaded. “I promise I won’t tell Mom that you sneaked off to fly in one of the planes, because you know she wouldn’t have let you do it either.”

“It’s your money,” David said. “I think you’d be better off getting the cotton candy myself, but it’s your choice. Just don’t be asking for any of my cotton candy later on.”

“Okay.” Michael led the way to the barker who had announced the raffle earlier while David was getting his plane ride, and hesitantly pulled on his pants leg to get his attention. “Sir, can I have a ticket, please?” he asked as he held out his dime.

“Why sure, sonny.” He pulled a ticket off the roll and split it in half, putting one part in a jar while handing Michael the other. “Good luck to you, kid. You’re going to need it.” He nodded towards a kid in fancy clothes a short distance away who must have had ten or twenty tickets in his hand. “Drawing’s in about 15 minutes.”

Michael clutched his ticket tightly in his hand, and David led him off to the side (since Michael’s mother wasn’t expecting them back yet) and regaled him with stories about his ride in the plane. Michael only half-listened, watching the pilots doing more loops and the wing walker who was now doing cartwheels across one wing.

David paused in his latest story, and then asked Michael, “Say, Mikey… what are you going to do if you win a ride? Your mom will never let you get on the airplane.”

“How will she know I won if you don’t tell her?” Michael countered. “It’s not like they’re going to call out my name, just the number on the ticket.”

David shook his head. In this sea of people, there was bound to be any number of people who knew Michael and his mother, and would tell her even if he didn’t, but his young cousin had his heart set on it. “Come on, let’s get up close so you can hear the numbers called. It’s nearly time for the drawing.”

Michael and David squeezed their way through the crowd up to close to the where the barker was twirling the big bowl around. He asked for someone who hadn’t purchased a ticket to volunteer to come up and draw the winners so no one could blame him if theirs wasn’t called. A pretty young lady was chosen, and led up the stairs next to the barker. “Just reach in the bowl, miss, and pick out a ticket, one at a time, four in all, and hand them to me so I can call out the winners.”

She tittered at the attention, and daintily stuck her hand in the bowl, pulling one from the top of the stack before handing it to him. “First winner is ticket number 1034. That’s ticket number 1034,” The barker boomed out to the expectant crowd. An excited yell came from the back of the crowd as a young man in early twenties came forward, waving his raffle ticket.

Michael stared down at his ticket. It wasn’t even close to his number, which was 3455. His shoulders drooped in disappointment. David squeezed his shoulder. “Hey, it’s only the first one. You’ve got three more chances.”

“Next winner… ticket number 0042. Ladies and gentlemen, who has ticket number 0042?” He looked over the crowd since there wasn’t a yell to let him know the winner was yet. “Ticket number 0042…” he announced again, and this time, the kid that Michael had seen earlier with all the tickets waved his hand.

“Mine! It’s mine,” he called, as he ran up to the barker with the tickets still streaming out behind him, handing him the second winning ticket.

Michael wondered what would happen if that kid had another winning ticket. Surely that couldn’t happen, could it? It would hardly be fair to everyone else… but his thoughts were interrupted by the barker calling out the next winning number.

“Ticket number 2274! Who has ticket number 2274? You’ve won a ride on an airplane.” The barker announced.

Michael’s shoulders were drooping even more at this point. It was looking like his cousin was right, and he just wasted that dime.

“Reach deep into the bowl, dear, and get us our final winner for the day,” the barker encouraged the young lady. She stuck her arm even further into the bowl, and dug around for a several seconds before pulling out the final winner and handing it to the barker.

“All right, folks, this is the last lucky winner in our raffle. Who’s it going to be?” He waved the ticket around and several people tried to catch a glimpse of the numbers without success before he announced it. “The last winner has ticket number three… four… five…” Michael was holding his breath at this point, clutching his ticket tightly in his hand. “five.” 

Michael could hardly believe it. It was his ticket! He won! David shook his shoulder, “Michael, Michael, quit standing there like a statue!” David waved to the barker. “He has it, sir. My cousin has that ticket.” He pushed Michael forward. “Give him your ticket, Michael.”

Michael trembled as he stepped up to the barker and handed him the last winning ticket of the day. The barker checked the numbers against the one in his hand, and smiled down at the young boy. “Well, well, well… looks like you had some good luck after all, kid.” Straightening up, the barker addressed the four winners – the two boys, the young man, and a lady who looked like she was someone’s grandma. “Just follow me, folks, and we’ll get you set up on a ride in Mr. Pangborn’s plane.

The lady held Michael’s hand, while the young man led her by the arm to the plane and the other young boy danced around the barker, excitedly proclaiming to one and all that it was only right that he should get to ride in the plane, and that he should get to go up first. The barker shook his head and explained that all of them would be going up together, which disappointed the other boy greatly. Michael didn’t care, though. He was going to fly! He could hardly believe it. Now if they would just hurry up and get him on the plane and up in the air before his mother found out…

The young man and the barker helped the lady in to the plane first, and then the other boy, who was still dancing about. The young man went up next, and finally Michael was helped up by the barker and the young man, who stood inside the airplane to help him up and over the side of the cockpit because Michael’s legs weren’t long enough to reach from the last step. The barker made sure that the young man and Michael were strapped in, while another of the ground crew did the same for the other boy and the lady on the other side.

The next thing Michael heard was the pilot, Clyde Pangborn, yelling, “Everyone ready?” At their nods, he gave the thumbs up to the crew, who pulled the chocks and he started down the field they’d be using for takeoffs and landings all day. Michael panicked for a moment when he heard his mother’s voice rising over the motor as the plane went down the runway, yelling at them to stop, that her son did not have her permission to go up in one of those newfangled airplanes… but her voice was quickly drowned out as the plane rose into the air and slowly climbed several hundred feet into the air.

Michael quickly realized that David had been right… he couldn’t see out of the cockpit because he was too short, so he had no idea what was going on. But he heard the crowd cheering as they came back over the fairgrounds again. And then he heard the pilot yell something but couldn’t make out what. And then the plane turned over as they circled back over the fairgrounds again, this time flying over them upside down. Michael could see the crowd beneath them, and his mother’s angry face, but tried to put it out of his mind, because this was great. It was a good thing they’d strapped him in, though, because he was being pulled towards the ground.

The airplane righted itself just past the end of the crowd and Michael was pulled back to the seat. And then there was another treat… it went up, up, up and then around in a loop. Michael was grinning madly at this point, looking over at the young man who’d helped him onto the plane, who had a similar grin on his face. He was thinking how jealous David would be because all he got to do was ride to town and back, while Michael got to be on one when the pilot was doing tricks for the crowd. They’d made several more passes over the crowd, and Clyde finally set the plane down and brought it to a stop.

Lizzie Quinn stormed up to the plane, almost before the ground crew had gotten the passengers off, and took Michael by the ear, pulling him away from the crowd. “Michael James Quinn, you know I told you that you were forbidden to go up in one of those contraptions.”

“But Mom, it was great! I want to be a pilot when I grow up.”

“Absolutely not, young man. You are going to be a salesman like your father. That’s a respectable trade, with none of this ridiculous showboating like these people do.”

Michael (despite getting spanked for disobedience) was determined that he was going to fly again. David got spanked too for not keeping Michael on the ground like his mother wanted. The two boys, in their room later that night, talked quietly under the covers of the bed so that Lizzie wouldn’t hear them, this time with Michael regaling David with the story about his flight. He was right, too… David was jealous of the tricks Michael had gotten to experience on his ride.

Michael went to sleep dreaming of the flight and even though he was forbidden to go anywhere without his mother for a week, not even down to the creek to catch tadpoles, he wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything.

****

**Present Day**

“And that’s the story of the first time I flew in a plane,” Michael finished.

“So you went up in a barnstormer’s plane when you were five? And not just any barnstormer’s, but Clyde Pangborn’s?” Allen shook his head in disbelief. “I’m not sure I believe any of what you just told me, Captain.”

“What’s not to believe, Doc? You wanted to know about what got me interested in flying, and I told you.”

Just then, the two men heard someone calling outside the caved in section of the house they were in, asking if anyone was there.

“We’re in here,” Michael yelled back. “Try and hurry and get us out, my partner’s badly hurt. He needs a doctor.”

“Somehow I think you just made all that up to keep me still, Captain.”

“Would I do that, Doc?” Michael gave his trademark lopsided grin at the older man. The sound of more people digging them out reached their ears, and both knew that they’d be out of there shortly.

“I think you would if you thought it would help.” Allen told him. He shifted slightly, and then gasped in pain before blacking out.

When Allen came to, Michael told him it was nearly two days later. Allen vaguely recalled seeing Mimi in the room, and Michael assured him that she was there, she'd only gone out to get something to eat and would be back shortly when he asked about her. After telling him all about how they were finally pulled out of the debris (and that they were lucky to be alive, because the tornado had leveled half the neighborhood), Michael got up to leave since it was clear that Allen was tired and needed his rest.

“Oh, one more thing, Doc… here.” Michael tossed a mimeograph of an old newspaper article into the Doctor’s lap.

Allen picked up the sheet of paper and looked at it as best he could, before Michael took pity and put his glasses on for him. Once Allen managed to focus onto the paper, he saw an old, blurry image of five people standing next to an old plane. One was clearly the pilot, he had the goggles up on his forehead, but the rest were two boys, a young man, and an older lady. The caption below the picture read ‘Clyde Pangborn with the four lucky winners of the raffle at the Ivan Gates Flying Circus, which was held at the fairgrounds Saturday morning.’

“I’m the smaller of the two boys,” Michael said. “In case you were wondering.” He took Allen’s glasses off and set them on the table next to the bed. “Now get some rest, Doc. After all, we still have a job to do, and we can’t do that with you on your back.” He grinned at him, gave him a half salute, and turned and walked out the door.

**Author's Note:**

> The Ivan Gates Flying Circus was a real barnstorming group back in the 1920s, and was, in fact, the best known of the groups. They went to all 48 states then in existence, as well as several foreign countries, performing their acts. Their chief pilot was Clyde Pangborn (who was also part owner of the flying circus) and their chief acrobat was A. F. Frantz, at least in 1925, according to a poster whose image I found online. Eddie Brooks was the name of another pilot in the circus that year. Clyde Pangborn was known as Clyde "Upside-down" Pangborn because he flew his plane upside down and yes, he did do in air transfers between planes. I did take some liberties -- some of the stunts I listed were actually performed by other barnstormers and not necessarily by the Ivan Gates Flying Circus. However, trying to find any information on the barnstormers of the 1920s on the internet was like pulling teeth, with nearly every website repeating the same handful of paragraphs almost word for word. I did make up the raffle... but not the rides in a plane for a dollar. They were in fact known for that, with one of their pilots (a gentleman named Bill Brooks) giving 980 people rides in one day at the Steubenville, Ohio, air show. They accomplished this by having the front cockpit of the plane enlarged to hold up to four people, and had steel ladders on either side of the cockpit to make for quicker loading and unloading of passengers.
> 
> I also estimated that Michael is about 31 years old in 1952, so gave him a birth year of 1921, which means that at age five, he would've been growing up right in the middle of all these barnstormers going around doing stunts and giving rides to people. I can see him being fascinated with planes from a young age, and (eventually) defying his mother's wishes to become a pilot when the war came around (if not before). 
> 
> Oh, and I just used a tornado destroying the building they're in (and the neighborhood) mostly because here in the Dayton, Ohio, area on Memorial Day, we had a record 15 tornadoes go through in about three or four hours' time in the middle of the night, including through part of the base housing for Wright-Patt. I spent half an hour sitting in the hallway of my house while the siren across the street went off about five or six times, and finally got up and looked out the front window just in time to see one of the tornadoes (an EF3) go by to the north just over the treeline, blowing out transformers as it went. Thankfully, there was only one fatality (up in Celina), but a number of injuries, which occurred mostly after the tornadoes when people were cleaning up. One of the injured was my brother, who blew out his knee (again) cleaning up debris from a sort-of (but not really) relation's yard and house.


End file.
